Re: obsd build include trouble

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

>      Did you use <> instead of "" for libpspp #includes for some
>      related reason?  I am a little puzzled by that choice.
>
> Well yes.  Because of the problems inhibiting the current directory
> inclusion for "", some people advocate never using #include "". 
>
> There's no formal standard which dictates when <> should be 
> prefered over "".  ANSI C says it's implementation dependent.  We've
> all been taught since 1st year undergrads, that <> is for 'system
> files' and "" is for everything else.  Unfortunately noone has ever
> been able to satisfactorily explain what a 'system file' is.  
>
> I don't have any strong opinions on what we should consider our
> 'system' to be.  However, the rule which I've found has led to fewest
> complications over the years is that "" is used only for including
> files which are never intended to be public (ie #included by files
> which reside in the same directory).  Everything else uses <>.

To me using <> for files actually included in the source tree
looks odd.  I've always considered the "system" to be whatever
is outside the current source tree.

However, <> works too, and as long as it does I guess it's fine.
It's a waste of time to sweat the truly unimportant details.
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
email: address@hidden
web: http://benpfaff.org